Prairie Ecosystems

conservation plan

Page history last edited by djaygo@... 2 yrs ago

Morton Arboretum Seed Collection Project:

The Morton Arboretum’s Schulenberg Prairie is a 100-acre tallgrass prairie restoration—one of the largest planted tallgrass prairies in the United States—that now contains over 400 native plant species. The restoration began in 1962 on land that had suffered severe soil erosion from over 100 years of intensive farming. The prairie was initially rebuilt one small planting at a time, with the few native plants under the constant threat of invasive weedy species. As the prairie grew, Morton Arboretum scientists and staff experimented with various techniques including sod transplantation from remnant meadows to the planting of greenhouse seedlings as well as different fire and seed collection regimens. The result has been a largely self-sustaining (though still actively managed) prairie and oak savanna community that supports populations of several state-endangered forbs including white lady-slipper orchid, sand milkweed, and prairie bush clover.

The success of the Schulenberg restoration has created significant interest in and pressure upon the new tallgrass prairie as a source of scarce native seeds. The growing movement to restore cultivated or otherwise degraded prairies to their original (and ecosystemically functional) states, as well as a rediscovery of prairie plants for gardening, have been limited by a small supply of native seed: the near-complete extirpation of the prairies of the Great Plains translates into the near-complete extirpation of seed sources. Consequently, the Morton Arboretum receives frequent requests from various institutions, organizations, and individuals interested in collecting seed from the Schulenberg Prairie (as well as the arboretum’s other natural areas). Although the Morton Arboretum would love to assist every project to restore native plants and prairies to the Great Plains, their first priority must be the maintenance of Schulenberg Prairie itself: both plant communities and diverse seed predators require that certain amounts of seed remain within the ecosystem in order to propagate themselves. In turn, countless other species depend on these plants and seed predators. Therefore, in order to protect the prairie ecosystem, the Morton Arboretum must limit the collection of seeds for other projects. There is currently no system in place by which to accomplish this task.

The stress placed upon the Schulenberg Prairie by legitimate seed collection is exacerbated by seed theft. As discussed above, the seeds produced by the Schulenberg Prairie and other natural areas are a valuable resource. The Morton Arboretum’s 1,700 acres present a challenge to patrol, and without a clear permit system in place to regulate seed collecting, it is often difficult to distinguish authorized from unauthorized seed collection. Consequently, the arboretum and its natural areas suffer annual losses to theft.

My project, then, is to establish a permit process by which the Morton Arboretum can authorize certain parties to collect seeds from the Schulenberg Prairie or other areas, thereby controlling the amount of seed legitimately extracted from each ecosystem and facilitating the prevention of seed theft. In order to ensure the most effective use of the arboretum’s valuable and limited seed supply, the permit process must provide a way of identifying those projects most likely to benefit the interested party, the Morton Arboretum, and others.

The projects for which interested parties seek native prairie plant seeds from the arboretum are as diverse as the parties themselves, ranging from small native plants gardens to large-scale restorations. As we have learned, however, it is no simple task to recreate a functional prairie ecosystem or even a self-propagating native plant community. The ecologists at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie have spent years experimenting with various restoration techniques: for example, one current process involves the planting of soybeans first in order to restore fertility to the soil, followed by non-native pasture grasses that provide the necessary biomass to support a fire regimen. In addition, extensive care is taken to restore the prairie’s natural hydrology—agricultural field tiles installed to drain groundwater away from crops have to be removed or destroyed. Only after these preparatory steps are native plants gradually reintroduced to the prairie. Certainly, the Midewin restoration is a more complex and ambitious project than those undertaken by most parties interested in seeds from the comparatively tiny Schulenberg Prairie. But even the Morton Arboretum has devoted countless research hours to the development of effective restoration and management programs, including seed collection, planting, and prescribed burn regimens. There is no one procedure to ensure the success of a restoration, and not everyone interested in collecting seed is restoring a fully functional native prairie. However, it is at least safe to say that if a project is successfully to establish and maintain its own populations from Morton Arboretum seed, it must be carefully planned with clear objectives and procedures in mind.

The evaluation of proposed projects must ultimately be made by Morton Arboretum staff. After talking with the arboretum’s manager of natural resources, Kurt Dreisilker, I developed a permit request form that gathers the information necessary to a thorough evaluation of proposals. After outlining the permit process and how projects will be evaluated with Kurt, the actual creation of the form was quite simple. In addition to supplying basic information about themselves, interested parties enter detailed descriptions of and development/management plans for their projects into an Excel spreadsheet that can be submitted electronically to the Morton Arboretum. Arboretum staff can then evaluate the projects and keep track of how much seed of each species is extracted, when it is extracted, and by whom. This should allow a more effective distribution of valuable native plant seeds while protecting the ecosystemic function of the Schulenberg Prairie.

[UPDATE: I contacted Bill Glass, the lead ecologist at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, for advice on how to evaluate seed requests. Midewin, he said, has yet to receive many requests for seed, but he anticipates that this will change soon. Consequently, though, Midewin does not currently have solid procedures in place, though they are bound by certain federal regulations. Dr. Glass directed me to the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission website, where he thought I could find guidelines crafted by Chicago Wilderness for seed collection. While I was unable to find any such guidelines, I did find the INPC's seed collection request form and, at the Chicago Wilderness website, two model restoration policies, one for restoring/protecting woodlands and one for planning controlled burns. These three documents did not offer a set of criteria by which to determine what projects are more promising than others, but they did highlight important detais that need to be considered in advance by anyone planning a native prairie garden or restoration. These include soil types, precipitation levels, balanced trophic systems, defenses against invasive species, hydrology, and monitoring procedures to maintain the health of the restoration. As noted above, there is no single procedure to follow to ensure a successful restoration, but the probability of success increases with the care and forethought of the restoration plan.]

I've attached a final draft of the application form as well as two model policies (one is for woodland preservation, the other for controlled burns) written by Chicago Wilderness that are resources for anyone interested in restoring natural areas in Illinois. The link goes to a list of prairie plants and their soil, sun, and moisture requirements.

seed collection form.xls